[73.03] The Square Kilometer Array as a Spacecraft Tracking Facility

The SKA will provide dramatic benefits for the space science
community in addition to the radio astronomy community. The
primary advantage for spacecraft tracking is a
two-orders-of-magnitude (or more) increase in sensitivity
over the existing Deep Space Network. This increase can be
used either to obtain much higher telemetry downlink data
rates, or to support much smaller and lighter spacecraft.
Additional advantages include flexible sub-arraying and
multi-beaming to allow simultaneous tracking of multiple
spacecraft, increased reliability through the use of large
numbers of identical array elements, and very accurate
real-time angular position measurements for spacecraft
navigation. Future space missions in many disciplines will
benefit from this huge increase in ground-based tracking
capability. Most importantly, new opportunities for less
expensive or completely different types of missions will be
created. Examples of new kinds of missions include landers,
rovers, or atmospheric probes that transmit data directly to
Earth without an orbiter for data relay, low-cost spacecraft
without a high gain antenna or high power RF amplifier,
limited-lifetime missions to hostile environments, and
extremely deep space (interstellar) probes. This work is
being carried out at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory,
California Institute of Technology, under contract with the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration.